How Practicing Mindfulness can help with our Anxiety and OCD
Do you find yourself feeling overwhelmed by the chatter in your mind? If your anxiety or OCD symptoms are flaring, mindfulness is a skill that can help ground you to your authentic, rational self. Often, our anxious/intrusive thoughts are based on panic, fear, or uncertainty, and clients may engage with these thoughts and believe them to be true. Through mindfulness, clients can learn more tangible skills to tolerate discomfort.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is a way of paying attention to the present moment and bringing awareness to ourselves, our bodies, and our minds. The skill of mindfulness enables clients to become more aware of their thoughts and feelings to eventually become less overwhelmed by them.
What is Mindful Breathing?
Mindful breathing involves focusing on the depth and duration of a client’s breathing. The goal is for a client to take large, deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth for a period of seconds. Noticing the breath and the sensations in your body helps bring awareness to the present moment and away from a triggering, stressful thought. It can also be helpful to focus on what a client can hear, smell, taste, feel, etc. while breathing. I encourage mindful breathing along with aligning with the senses to reinforce control of the present moment and realign a client’s thoughts. Mindful breathing is not quick, panicked breathing but slow, focused breaths while becoming an active observer of self.
Can Mindful Breathing Help with OCD?
Mindful breathing is an effective way to ground when clients are experiencing OCD. The nature of OCD is that our brain grasps the idea that something the client is thinking may be uncertain or uncomfortable, and the OCD needs control and certainty. Typically, OCD thoughts may start with “what if,” or compulsions may occur to seek reassurance that the client is safe or achieves temporary certainty. To mitigate reassurance-seeking or compulsive behaviors, I encourage clients to tolerate their anxiety by becoming active observers of their surroundings and mindfully breathing. Bringing a client back to themselves and their senses allows for a focus on the present, and helps tolerate the discomfort of an intrusive, reoccurring thought.
Mindful breathing also involves reaffirming thinking. Deep breaths are used along with affirming thoughts such as “I am safe, I am capable, this is simply my OCD, I can tolerate this discomfort, I have felt these feelings before and have been OK.” Pairing mindful breathing with positive, affirming thoughts is a restructuring technique that clients can use to become more regulated and grounded.
Allowing the thoughts to enter and leave is achieved through mindfulness. Sitting through feelings of panic and discomfort can be done through deep breathing and the connection to the present moment.
What are Other Helpful Treatments?
Other helpful treatments for OCD/anxiety are medication, and psychotherapy, which includes psychoeducation, CBT, talk therapy, and ERP. Exposure therapy is a great way to overcome OCD and anxiety, as clients can expose themselves to anxiety-inducing thoughts or behaviors and learn to tolerate the discomfort in a controlled environment. Support groups are a great way to learn acceptance of our OCD, as clients often can feel “crazy” about their thoughts or behaviors. Groups help normalize clients’ experiences, which can be extremely healing.
If you are suffering alone in your struggles, please consider joiningTransforming Struggle into Strength: A Virtual Support Group for Your Intrusive Thoughts and Inflexible Thinking Support Groupthat runs every Wednesday night from 7-8 PM regarding issues of anxiety, OCD, depression, life transitions, and stress management. My name isJulia Resnick,and I am a Psychotherapist at Be You Psychotherapy available for a free consultation call through our website!
